Library to calculate distances between postcodes in the UK

问题

I am looking for a way to calculate approximate distance between two UK postcodes (distance in the straight line is good enough) for analysing data. Preferably easily accessible from java, but C#, native C++ etc. are fine as well.

回答1:

First, you need to translate the postcode into useful coordinates. For example, the Easting and Northing values from a Postcode lookup table, like the one from here: http://www.doogal.co.uk/UKPostcodes.php

These Easting and Northing are UK Ordnance Survey grid coordinates in metres from the OS map origin.

Convert them into Kilometres by dividing by 1000

Then use a simple Pythagoros triangle formula. Say the two points have Easting and Northing values (in kilometres) of E1, N1 and E2, N2

Distance between them in Kilometres = Square root of ( abs(E1-E2)^2 + abs(N1-M2)^2 )

回答2:

The following question answers the exact same question only in PHP specifically:

Using PHP and google Maps Api to work out distance between 2 post codes (UK)

It leverages a web service API though, so you should be able to use any basic rest api to leverage it (I'm sure there are well documented options in Java, C# and C++).

来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8695276/library-to-calculate-distances-between-postcodes-in-the-uk